The Department of Chemical & Metallurgical Engineering
Private Bag X680
Pretoria
0001
Tel. (012) 382 6364 / 6274 /3595
Fax. (012) 382 6275
Monthly Report: Work Integrated Learning
Month No.:
Date: From/To
08/05/14 to 22/05/14
Employer Name:
MINOPEX (AQUIRIUS PLATINUM MINE K1)
Student Initials and Surname:
TP SHILENGE
Student Number:
212046710
Student e-mail:
[email protected]
Student Cell No:
0785600060
Mentor e-mail:
[email protected] / 0723399834
Description of tasks completed by student
FLOATATION SECTION
TASKS THAT I HAVE PERFOMED AT THE FLOAT SECTION DEALING WITH THE
REAGENTS USING ON THE SECTION
SIBX was mixed at the reagent mixing area , I measured the strength of the
solution of the reagent by taking a sample on the primary rougher feed sump
using a glass jar and I did analysis in the lab by taking a droplet of SIBX using a
syringe and put it on top of the refratro-meter where it reads the strength of the
reagent and took the readings , if the strength is below 9.0 the SIBX was weak
they will add more when mixing and if its too high than 10.5 it will be diluted with
water,
Did reagent spot checking , used a flask of 500-600ml and a stop watch , took a
sample of SIBX on the pipe feeding with SIBX on the primary rougher feed sump
and the secondary ball mill discharge sump , for 60 seconds in a flask and
measured how many liters of SIBX is used for every minute and further
calculated , it was found that the dosage of SIBX it should range between 5-6
liters for each minute used in the sump for floatation, also controlled the valve in
increasing the flow or decreasing the flow of the reagent. because overdosing of
reagents will result in a low quality product ending up not collecting enough
pgms collecting gangue materials (unwanted materials) and underdosing will
result in both poor recovery and poor . Low (SIBX) may not be sufficient to coat
all the material that is needed to be coated for recovery.
I felt the strength of a flocculant manually used in the concentrate thickner by
using my hand, if it was slippery then the flocc strength was good to can settle
the concentrate at the bottom and water overflowing at the top but if felt the flocc
not to be slipping on the fingers then a problem should be solved at the mixing
area they should put more powder of flocc than water, because low dosage or
low strength of the flocculant will result poor recovery of concentrate the thickner
slimes water will overflow with some of the concentrate and it will also cause the
process water to be contaminated can trip the pumps pumping water to the plant.
In general the flocculant dosing rate will depend on the strength of the flocculant and the
type of ore being treated. This will be controlled according to process specific
requirements.
Too little flocculant will result in poor settling and cloudy overflow.
Too much flocculant will cause a heavy mud bed and high rake torque.
Thickener density was controlled and to be kept between 1.60 to 1.65 , I was
taking densities of the concentrate thickener and holding tank ,
The feed SG is a measure of the quantity of solids in suspension in the water. A
high concentration of solids in suspension will require a longer settling time due
to particles hindering each other in the settling process
Competency in taking densities
first I used a sample cutter, to cut the samples on the mill discharge and put
inside the flask used for densities
left the flask hanging on the scale
recorded the density then dispose on the spillage area where it can be pumped
back to the process
clean the flask and the sample cutter
I operated the butterfly valves, in closing for water not to pass through and to open for
the water to pass through, when horsing on the section for good housekeeping.
OBJECTIVE OF FROTH FLOATING
The objective of the flotation section in the concentrator is to produce the best possible
recovery at the required concentrate grade. This must be done at the lowest possible
operating cost so that the process is profitable
INTRODUCTION
Froth Flotation is a means of treating pulp of finely ground ores so that the valuable or
desired mineral is obtained in a concentrate, which will be suitable to further processing.
The process involves chemical treatment of the ore pulp to create conditions favourable
for attachment of the desired mineral particles to air bubbles which floats to the top and
recovered as froth.
THEORY
Im mainly discussing the operating parameters since the details was mensioned in the
previous report
Collectors
The collector is the heart of the flotation process.
In order for a mineral to attach itself to a bubble, its surface must be made hydrophobic
(that is, the surface must repel or hate water and must prefer the air to the water).
Collectors are used for this purpose. They attach themselves to the mineral surface by
chemical, electrical or physical attraction, and then makes the mineral particle water
repellent, however one needs sufficient surface area that can be achieved by milling
adequately. The collectors do not like to attach themselves to the waste (gangue)
minerals and thus, the gangue remain soaked in water and are unable to attach
themselves to the bubbles.
The Collector used at K1 is called Sodium Iso-Butyl XANTHATES (SIBX) and xanthate
based chemicals are commonly used in platinum flotation circuits.
Collectors have been developed that are very selective in terms of the minerals that
they attach themselves to. They are usually added in small amounts to the flotation
pulp: if too much is added, selectivity is reduced and unwanted minerals may be floated.
Also, too many collectors can have the opposite to the desired effect and can reduce
floatability. It is common to add different collectors at different places in the flotation
circuit: very selective but weaker collectors can be used in the beginning of the circuit to
float the easy floating minerals, and then less selective, but more powerful ones later on
to float the less floatable minerals.
Frother
The main purpose of the frothing agent is to create a froth capable of "carrying" or
holding the mineral-laden bubbles (bubbles loaded with minerals) until they can be
removed from the flotation cell. This objective is accomplished by imparting temporary
toughness to the covering film of the bubble. The life of the individual bubble is thus
prolonged until it can be further stabilized by adherence of mineral particles and joined
with other bubbles at the pulp surface to form a froth bed. Once the "froth" is withdrawn
from the flotation machine, however, it is desirable that it break down rapidly, to prevent
interference with subsequent processing operations such as froth sump level
measurement and pumping
Depressant
The role of depressants is to reduce the collection of unwanted gangue, typically talc
and other oxide minerals such as chrome. Typical examples of depressants include
either inorganic salts, such as sodium silicate, sodium sulphite or organic salts, such as
polysaccharides, dextrin and starch derivatives, guar gums,( KU5) and alginates.
Depression is achieved by either enhancing the hydrophilic nature of the gangue
surface, by preventing the formation of hydrophobic species or by coating of unwanted
slimes on the mineral surface.
Depressants are used to increase the selectivity of flotation. These chemicals are
hydrophilic (water loving), and attach themselves to certain minerals and thus render
them unfloatable. KU 5 is the depressant that is used at K1 in order to keep the
unwanted minerals in the flotation cells from where they can be rejected through the
tailings stream, for example, chrome
Air control
The air must be regulated at a constant flow which must not be too low or too high. Too
low flow will not create the necessary bubbles that are needed for the process and a
high flow will not create the correct size of bubbles. The incorrect air flow can result in
poor concentrate grades and recoveries.
Level control ( froth depth).
The levels of cells must at all times be kept at the required mark (300-350mm). If the
cell level is too low the froth forming on the surface of the slurry will not flow over into
the froth launder, resulting in low production recovery. If the cell level is too low the froth
forming on the surface of slurry can not be recovered as a concentrate resulting In poor
yield of product. If the level is too high unwanted material will spontaneously slime into
the product launder and the product will be contaminated.
DID HOUSE KEEPING
Hosing with a hose pipe especially where I was taking samples of densities and around
the float section
What good housekeeping (order) means
It means a place for everything and everything is in its place.
A plant should always be tidy and clean and all equipment not in use
should be properly stored in a dedicated place.
The necessity of good housekeeping in the industry or plant
It prevents accidents, as work places are kept free of excess material.
It reduces fire hazards because there is no excess material lying around.
It creates a pleasant working environment that in turn serves as
motivation, as all of us would like to work in a clean and tidy environment.
It promotes safe working conditions.
Housekeeping General
Refer to the company specific code of practice regarding the safe storage
of hazardous materials/substances.
Failure to comply with the plant specific good housekeeping practices can
result in potential serious injury and/ or damage to equipment/production.
Interaction of different substances can result in reactions that could lead to
fires and or poisoning (gassing) accidents.
Equipment, tools, hoses and waste material that lie around in the plant
can result in trip and fall incidents that could lead to serious injury.
Spills and overflows of tanks must be cleaned promptly to prevent
objectionable environmental degradation.
LABORATORY K1 SECTION
OBJECTIVE
Sampling is done in order to obtain analyses, which will be used:
To control the metallurgical extraction process.
To obtain the data required for metallurgical accounting.
To obtain data used for planning future development.
Methods of Sampling
There are no general sampling methods applicable to all types of material. Specialized
methods depend on whether a gas, liquid or solid is involved. In the sampling of solids,
particle size is an important variable and the problem can be much more difficult than
for liquids or gasses, in which a uniform, homogeneous condition usually - but not
necessarily- exists. Mechanical devices are available for sampling large volumes of
material; in many industrial processes continuous sampling or monitoring may be
possible e.g. of the cyanide or mercury level in a waste effluent or of radioactive
substances in a nuclear reactor coolant. Exact procedures of sampling are specified by
various professional societies for sampling many types of materials. These methods
are based on careful studies and long experience. Although some materials may be
relatively easy to sample, some are not. Difficulty may be encountered, for instance, in
obtaining a representative 25g sample from a 25 ton mill feed. To sample properly
substances that are bulky and inhomogeneous, such as ore, a large gross sample must
first be taken. A good way of doing this is to grab pieces at random as the substance is
being unloaded from a conveyor belt. Then the gross sample is crushed to a smaller
particle size. Portions of the crushed sample are taken and the rest is discarded.
Further reduction, particle size of a sample is accomplished by passage through a disk
pulverizer. Sieves may be used to see if the final sample is of the proper mesh size. In
general large quantities of materials are best sampled while in motion. Metal and solid
materials are sampled by drilling, sawing, or milling (the sawdust, shavings, etc.
constitutes the sample). Inhomogeneous liquids or soft solids can be sampled by
sticking a pipe into the full depth of a substance and lifting out the core inside the pipe.
Gas samples are usually obtained by allowing the gas to displace a confining liquid in a
bottle equipped with a suitable stopcock.
TASKS THAT I HAVE PERFOMED
Collected the samples for both 24 hour sample and 8 hour samples on the plant to be
used in the Lab for analysis and preparations, collected from the DMS section sinks,
floats stones and fines on their screens, also collected the overflow of flash float cell 3
and also the DMS feed from the 8000 silos. Cutted the samples on the primary ball mill
discharge 1 and 2 using a sample cutter and pour inside a bucket at the float I collected
the overflow of primary cleaners both the low grade and high grade and also the
secondary cleaners, primary rougher tail and secondary rougher tail using the bucket
and took them to the lab for analysis and preparations
I dewatered the grinds and the samples from the float by using the filtrate machine,
which I could operate since I wrote the lab tests , when they done filtering I put them on
the metal pans and put them in the ovens to dry them together with the other samples
TREATING THE GRINDS
After the grinds have dried I placed them on the mechanical splitter to be divided in to
equal percentage , operated the machine and took the two splitter pans that were
opposite to each other and treated one of them, I washed off the grindes using the sieve
pan having aperture size of +75 microns , washing the fines that could pass through the
pore then did with that of +150 microns and placed them in the oven again to dry, after
they have dried I placed them on the mechanical shaker with the sieve pans of +75
microns and +150 microns aparture size for accurate distribution according to correct
size for 10 minutes then weigh their masses separately on to the mass balance and did
the calculation for particle size analysis and calculated the mass of fines and its
percentage that was lost during washing of grindes to check if the mill is efficiently
grinding if its between 65 and 67% then the mill was grinding but if its below then the
mill was not efficiently grinding therefore results were sent and further improvements will
be made on the ball mills either the steel ball charges, feed rate, linings or the power .
Performance appraisal (scale 1-10)
Comments: Employer/Students
Quality of work
Quantity of work
Responsibility/Reliability
Theoretical knowledge
Practical skills acquired
Motivation
Communication skills
Human relations & work ethics
Initiative / Problem-solving
Report writing
Was the student absent from work during this period?
YES
NO
If Yes, number of days and dates absent:
If Yes, state reasons given:
If Yes, was a doctors certificate submitted (if/when required)? YES
NO
Comments: TUT
Signatures
Student
Employer:
Surname
Rank:
Telephone:
WIL Coordinator:
Head of Department:
Date:
Date:
OFFICIAL COMPANY STAMP/BUSSINESS CARD
Date:
Date:
